30 MARCH 1867, Page 23

Occasional Essays. By Chandes Wren Hoskyns. (Longmans.)— Mr. Hoskyns has

written so charmingly on the subject of a clay farm, of all other subjects the least attractive, that we are rather disappointed in these essays. The papers on "Landlord" and "Agriculture" are the most interesting, not only from their style and matter, but from the line taken in them. We are glad to find Mr. lloskyns inveighing against the present real-property system, and advocating the adoption of the same law for real as for personal property in case of intestacy. He re- grets, too, that while so much has been retained of the old Norman usage in respect to lands, its only wholesome feature, simplicity of title and transfer, has been abandoned. The present Court is quite with him.